“Who loves a garden
still his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvest reaps.”
~Amos Bronson Alcott
In my garden, Spring is my favourite season. I like the clean,
winter-washed look of the beds and the grass beneath the conifers
turning green where only last week, snow lay. I marvel at the neat fresh shoots of the first
bulbs peeking up through the leaf mould. To me, spring holds all
the promise, all the anticipation of the gardening year ahead. I
wonder .... did my struggling Japanese maple survive, have the
rabbits fed in my euonymus all winter? Did a late frost hit my magnolia buds?
If we've had a mild winter, the forsythia
will bloom in May along with the grape hyacinth, first tulips and dwarf
iris .
Long before the tulips are in bloom, I am in the greenhouse, potting
up the seedlings started in March in the house.
Our little greenhouse
creates a summer haven in the midst of a damp cold spring -- it's 80 degrees in
there, warmed only by the sun.
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back
in the middle of March.
- Robert Frost
Candytuft adds bright white
contrast to this border.
|
Our garden is the result of
twenty-five years of planting and replanting, learning and
experimenting, socializing and sharing. Dave is the muscle man - he runs
the heavy equipment, keeps the grass mowed and creates the best
eight foot high piles of compost with his loader. Beyond
that, he has the vision and the engineering mind to see beyond the
plants and the flowerbeds to the bigger picture. He designed our
garden sheds and built the irrigation system and planned the "big
dig" of our the pond. His vision is evident everywhere. 
Dave's little Yanmar loader and...
...his power edger make short work of the difficult things. 
Irrigation drippers keep the birdbaths always full and fresh.
Views from our deck are a glimpse of Utopia!
|
